Did Goering field an Operational Nazi Youth Flight Corps He-162 Squadron?

It started out with glider training.

As Germany made further preparations for an inevitable war (1933-36), Wasserkuppe became an official training camp for the Nazi Youth Flight Corps. Exploiting a loop hole in the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler did everything possible to encourage glider flying. Funding for the program was subsidized through the efforts of brown-shirted storm troopers who "urged" German citizens to donate to "sport flying". It would be an easy matter to transform the skilled, young glider aviators into fighter and bomber pilots. Many of the technical school pilots had built their own planes. They represented a body of trained men who would be able to take leadership roles in airplane factories in time of conflict.

By (1939), the Wasserkuppe Nazi Youth Flight Corps was operating at full capacity. Luftwaffe personnel on site numbered over 40 instructors and support personnel. During a 1943 allied air assault, Wasserkuppe suffered the loss of twenty men killed and numerous casualties. All Nazi aircraft, glider hangers and the flight operations center were destroyed.

WINGS OF WASSERKUPPE

Combined with some other research, including a History Channel special I saw recently that claimed there actually was an operational NYFC He-162 squadron, this topic has really piqued my interest. Some more interesting stuff I've found -

* In September 1944, with the Nazi empire under extreme pressure on all fronts, the German Air Ministry ("ReichsLuftsfahrtMinisterium" or "RLM") acknowledged Germany's desperate circumstances by issuing a requirement for a new jet fighter that would be simple, cheap, and easy to build in large quantity. The aircraft would be built in such quantities that little maintenance would be required, as a defective aircraft could simply be discarded and replaced with a new one. The Air Ministry called this aircraft the "Volksjaeger (People's Fighter)".

Such a measure made some sense under the circumstances, but there were those in the Nazi leadership, including Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, who went further, believing that the new fighter would be piloted by Hitler Youth. These adolescents would be given elementary pilot training by flying gliders based on the Volksjaeger, and then would immediately be put behind the controls of the fighter itself, to sink or swim in flight operations and air combat. The idea of putting barely trained kids into the cockpit of a high performance fighter, particularly one designed in haste and manufactured as cheaply as possible, was of course lunacy, and Goering, a fighter ace himself, should have known better.

really goes on to stir the pot by stating -

* The He-162 finally began to see combat in mid-April. On 19 April, the pilot of a British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter who had been captured by the Germans informed his interrogators that he had been shot down by a jet fighter whose description was clearly that of a He-162. The Heinkel and its pilot were lost as well, shot down by an RAF Tempest fighter while returning to base.

- leaving the question open of who was flying the He-162 that the downed RAF pilot was referring to under interrogation, the one shot down by the RAF Tempest on rtb. The History Channel special I saw claimed the RAF aircraft shot down by the He-162 was a Hawker Hurricane.

The He-162 for sure saw action with

its first operational unit, the "Ist Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 1 (I/JG-1)", which had previously flown the Focke-Wulf FW-190......From mid-April (1945), I/JG-1 had scored a number of kills, but had also lost thirteen He-162s and ten pilots. Most of the losses were from flying accidents, due to problems such as engine flame-outs and occasional structural failures. The difficulties with the type seem to have been due to the fact that it was rushed into production, not that it was an inherently bad design. One experienced Luftwaffe pilot who flew it called it a "first-class combat aircraft".

The Heinkel He-162 Volksjaeger



Did any of the NYFC pilots trained on gliders at Wasserkuppe fly with the initial "Erprobungskommando 162", formed at the Luftwaffe test center at Rechlin under the command of Oberstleutnant Heinz Baer, or "Ist Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 1 (I/JG-1)", or end up getting assigned to them, or to the last gasp "Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Group)"?

Was there ever an operational NYFC He-162 squadron? I have to admit I am extremely curious about this, and from my own personal research I have to conclude that at least one NYFC pilot made it into combat in a He-162, and was shot down or crashed or his airfield was overrun and he was captured by the Allies.



[edit on 13-11-2005 by Icarus Rising]

[edit on 13-11-2005 by Icarus Rising]

In January 1945, the Luftwaffe formed a special "Erprobungskommando 162" He 162 test pilot evaluation group to which the first 46 aircraft were delivered. The group was based at the Luftwaffe test center at Rechlin under the command of Heinz Bär. Bär, an experienced combat pilot credited with 200 kills, familiarized himself and his group with the new airplanes.

February saw deliveries of the He 162 to its first operational unit, I/JG-1, the 1st Group of Jagdgeschwader 1 (fighter squadron), which had previously flown the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. I/JG-1 was transferred to Parchim, near the Heinkel factory at Marienehe, where the pilots could pick up their new jets and start intensive training beginning in March, all while the transportation network and fuel supply of the Third Reich was collapsing under the pressure of Allied air attacks. On April 7, the USAAF bombed the field at Parchim with 134 B-17 Flying Fortresses, inflicting serious losses and damage to the infrastructure. Two days later, I/JG-1 transferred to a airfield at nearby Ludwigslust and, less than a week later, moved again to an airfield at Leck, near the Danish border. In the meantime, on April 8 the 2nd Group of JG-1 (II/JG-1) moved to the Heinkel airfield at Marienehe and started converting from Fw 190s to He 162s. The 3rd Group of JG-1 (III/JG-1) was also scheduled to convert to the He 162, but the Group was disbanded on April 24 and its personnel used to fill in the vacancies in other units.

The He-162 finally saw combat in mid-April. On April 19, a captured Royal Air Force fighter pilot informed his Germans interrogators that he had been shot down by a jet fighter matching the description of a He 162. The Heinkel and its pilot were lost as well, shot down by a RAF Hawker Tempest while on approach. Though still in training, I/JG-1 had scored a number of kills beginning in mid-April, but had also lost thirteen He 162s and ten pilots. Ten of the aircraft losses were the result of various technical malfunctions, such as engine flameouts and sporadic structural failures: just two were shot down. The He 162's 30-minute fuel capacity also caused problems, as at least two of JG-1's pilots were killed attempting emergency landings after exhausting their fuel.

In the last days of April, as the Soviet troops approached, II/JG-1 evacuated from Marienhe and on May 2 joined the I/JG-1 at Leck. On May 3, all of JG-1's surviving He 162s were restructured into two groups, I. Einsatz (Combat) and II. Sammel (Replacement). All the JG-1's aircraft where grounded May 5 when General Admiral von Friedeburg signed the surrender of all German armed forces in Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark. On May 6 when the British reached their airfields, JG-1 turned their He 162s over to the Allies, and examples of the fighter were then shipped to the US, Britain, France, and the USSR for further evaluation. Erprobungskommando 162 fighters, which had been passed on to JV 44, an elite jet unit under Adolf Galland a few weeks earlier, were all destroyed by their crews to keep the jets from falling into Allied hands. By the time of the German unconditional surrender May 8, 1945, 120 He 162s had been delivered; a further 200 aircraft had been completed and were awaiting collection or flight-testing; about 600 more were in various stages of production.

The difficulties experienced by the He 162 were caused mainly by its rush into production, not by any inherent design flaws. One experienced Luftwaffe pilot who flew it called it a "first-class combat aircraft." Though a RAF pilot was killed in November 1945 when one of the tailfins broke off during the Farnborough air show, a British pilot who evaluated the He 162 praised it.

Thats a quote from from Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org...

I know they were supposed to be flown by the Hilter Youth but I don't think they ever got that far, there is no way some kid with no combat experience is going to shoot down a Tempest or other small fighter unless it was sheer dumb luck. They were obviously experienced pilots who were flying at the time.

I agree that the pilots of the NYFC couldn't have made it into action in the He-162 in any numbers, if at all. There may have been no operational NYFC He-162 squadron.

I'm still curious what happened to the Wasserkuppe group subsequent to the bombing of the glider facilities there in '43. Quite a lot had been invested in the glider training program, Germany was losing experienced pilots at an unsustainable rate, Goering, as Luftwaffe Commander, had tremendous power, and I find it likely that a few of the NYFC's standout pilots, the best of the best, made it into "Erprobungskommando 162", and also "Ist Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 1 (I/JG-1)". After all, that was the whole idea and goal of the glider program, to provide experienced young pilots to the Luftwaffe. I'm not trying to claim that it was one of these hotshots that downed the Hurricane, but its possible. Not likely, but possible.

Very little is said of the Nordhausen facility and its role in the production and use of the He-162. Perhaps the Wasserkuppe group ended up there with the other 'mountain men' near the end, and went on to participate in flight operations from there?

There is no way to be sure exactly what happened as records from the time are incomplete, to say the least.